International Media Resource Articles – Page 569

Brazil’s Agnelli, who turned Vale into top miner, dies in crash – by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Tatiana Bautzer (Reuters U.S. – March 19, 2016)

March 20, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

SAO PAULO – Roger Agnelli, the Brazilian banker who turned Vale SA (VALE5.SA) into the world’s No. 1 iron ore producer, died on Saturday in a plane crash, a source close to aviation authorities told Reuters. He was 56.

Agnelli, his wife and two children were among seven killed when his Comp Air 9 turboprop monoplane slammed into two homes around 3:20 p.m. local time (1820 GMT), minutes after taking off from an airport in northern São Paulo, said the source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the information.

Emergency services said the pilot and six passengers were killed in the crash. Aviation authorities confirmed that Agnelli was the owner of the plane but could not provide a passenger list.

Sources said Agnelli was traveling to a wedding ceremony in Rio de Janeiro with his wife Andréia, son João, daughter Anna Carolina, and their two spouses. The weather was clear at the time of the crash.

While lithium opportunities grow, investors urged to maintain caution – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The increase in lithium prices has tempted more companies to enter the space and take advantage of the growing market interest, said Disruptive Discoveries Journal newsletter writer Chris Berry at the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference.

“A lot of companies have changed their names and focus to get into the lithium game,” he said. “And they’ve started saying some things that, quite frankly, stretch the truth a little bit.”

But Berry warned that the current climb in lithium prices should not be the main investment focus, adding that the 2009 bubble offered an important cautionary tale. “Parabolic moves either always crash or revert,” he said. “Whether that’s back to the original long-term trend or not remains to be seen.”

People’s Democratic Party: Mugabe Must Step Down Over Missing $15 Billion Diamond Revenue – by Gibbs Dube (Voice of America Zimbabwe – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.voazimbabwe.com/

WASHINGTON DC— The alleged looting of potential diamond revenue, estimated by President Robert Mugabe to be about $15 billion, has caused a stir in the country with opposition parties urging the 92 year old Zimbabwean leader to step down.

Opposition parties claim that Mr. Mugabe’s colleagues, some top state security officials and people linked to the ruling party should be held responsible for the suspected looting of the diamonds, which was once highlighted in 2012 by Partnership Africa Canada.

Partnership Canada alleged that at least $2 billion worth of diamonds were stolen from the country’s diamond fields and ended up in the pockets of President Mugabe’s ruling elite. The same allegations were once made by former Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

Then Mines Minister Obert Mpofu dismissed these allegations as wishful thinking.

Hillary Tells it Like it Is … – by Tim Arnold (Huffington Post – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

“We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business…” so said Hillary Clinton at a town hall meeting in Columbus, Ohio, Sunday night, 13 March — creating an uproar amongst conservative Republicans, adding fuel to the raging fire Donald Trump was already fanning.

And despite pledging to generate clean energy jobs to replace them, and reaffirming her plan to invest $30 billion in protecting coal miners’ benefits and pensions, one could argue she put her presidential aspirations on the line with this kind of realistic honesty.

Abraham Lincoln took the same risk, nay, an even greater risk, in his historic Cooper Union speech in New York City in February, 1860, when he was a low-odds candidate for the Republican presidential nomination against Stephen Douglas who, three months earlier, had already soundly defeated Lincoln in their run for the Illinois senate.

Drought likely to pose water challenges for mines in the medium term – by Ilan Solomons (MiningWeekly.com – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – There is no evidence of water supply concerns related to the current drought compromising mining operations in South Africa, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) tells Mining Weekly.

However, project management and engineering consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV mining director Berte Simons said last month that the drought could become a bigger problem in areas where underground water reservoirs, mining operations and communities interacted, as this would “inevitably” lead to mines and their host communities competing for water.

The department does acknowledge, though, that mining might have an aggravating effect during the current drought on the quality of the water supplied in certain parts of the country, as historical mining activities governed under the previous National Water Act of 1956 have damaged certain water resources.

Who really runs South Africa? – by Martina Schwikowski (Deutsche Welle – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.dw.com/en/

Pressure for President Jacob Zuma to step down is increasing after allegations of his involvement in a corruption scandal with the Gupta family. But who are the powerful Guptas?

More and more connections between South African President Jacob Zuma and the Indian Gupta family are coming to light as allegations regarding top government jobs offered by the infamous family continue to surface. The opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) laid corruption charges against the controversial family at the Cape Town police station on Thursday (17.03.2016).

President Jacob Zuma was questioned in parliament about the Guptas’ political influence. Zuma, however, denied any involvement and reiterated that he alone holds the power to appoint cabinet members.

Nerves of steel: Glencore’s brave call in battle with short-sellers (Reuters U.K. – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

March 18 (IFR) – Markets were panicking about Glencore on the morning of January 14. A rout in metals, agricultural and energy prices had hit the commodity trading company hard, making it a target for short-sellers who were betting on its collapse.

Glencore shares started trading that morning at 70.83p, their lowest open ever and down almost 90% from its IPO less than five years earlier. Its bonds with just a year to maturity were yielding over 10%, an unmistakeable sign of stress, while the cost of five-year default protection was quoted above 1,000bp for the first time since October 2008.

“People were starting to see ghosts,” said one banker who has closely worked with the company for a decade. “They thought Glencore was going bankrupt.”

From the outside, there looked to be plenty of reason to worry. Lured by surging commodity prices and growing demand from China, the company had gorged on cheap debt in the late 2000s, doubling its borrowings at a time when much of the corporate world was cutting back.

Anger in China’s coal country as miners feel left behind – by Gerry Shih (Seattle Times – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.seattletimes.com/

The Associated Press- JUNDESHAN, China (AP) — Hanging from a highway overpass two hours’ drive from the Siberian border, a local government banner reads like a last-gasp exhortation to this exhausted coal community: “Improve our structure, change our methods, transform our city.”

This area has transformed in dire ways as China has retreated from coal and heavy industry. Li Jiuxian, who hasn’t been paid for half a year, sees only mounting debts and anger.

“I don’t even have anywhere left to borrow money from,” said the 51-year-old miner as he stepped outside a squalid mahjong parlor reeking of smoke and drink where miners while away days without work or pay. “There isn’t going to be change.”

[United Kingdom] North York Moors National Park at risk of being ‘industrialised’ by £2bn potash mine project – by Dean Kirby (The Independent – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.independent.co.uk/

Business leaders say the mine will be the biggest private investment project in the North of England ‘by a billion miles’

One of Britain’s best-loved national parks is on the verge of being “industrialised” after a fertiliser company unveiled details of its plan to sink a huge potash mine, rural campaigners have warned.

Sirius Minerals says it will plough £2.4bn into the York Potash Project to build the mine to the south of Whitby in the North York Moors National Park in a move that will create more than 1,000 jobs.

Business leaders say the mine will be the biggest private investment project in the North of England “by a billion miles” and the firm’s economic forecasters say it will make an annual contribution to Britain’s economy of £2.3bn.

Biggest mining equity rally in years built on shaky foundations – by Clara Denina (Reuters U.S. – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – The biggest rally for mining company shares since 2009 risks fizzling out as gains have largely been driven by funds reversing bets on lower prices rather than long-term investors looking for value.

The benchmark FTSE 350 mining index, which tracks the performance of the UK’s 11 biggest listed miners, is up 26 percent this year, the biggest quarterly gain since September 2009, and marking a revival after three years of losses.

Sentiment in the sector has been helped by a weaker U.S. currency, which makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for non-U.S. consumers and expectations that top consumer China will use further stimulus to boost its flagging economic growth.

Yellen Reignites Commodities Rebound From Gold to Copper – by Luzi-Ann Javier (Bloomberg News – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s dovish message reignited a commodities rebound that pushed up everything from gold and copper to miners including Teck Resources Ltd. and Freeport-McMoRan Inc.

The Fed on Wednesday signaled it won’t raise interest rates as much this year as forecast in December amid weakening global economic growth, sending gold prices surging just after futures capped the longest slump since November.

A gauge of 14 gold miners climbed to the highest in more than a year, while the Bloomberg Americas Mining Index surged to an eight-month high. “With loose monetary policy and low rates, we’ll have a lot of money out there in the system and demand will be higher,” Bob Haberkorn, a senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago, said in a telephone interview.

BHP Billiton invites coal to join new world order – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.afr.com/

Two weeks before Andrew Mackenzie extended his mission of simplicity to Australian industrial relations, the coal workers of Queensland were offered documentary evidence of exactly what the BHP Billiton chief executive might have in mind.

“BHP Billiton believes it’s in the national interest to simplify workplace agreements so that our teams have the flexibility to succeed in the global market,” Mackenzie told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Wednesday.

True to his politically moderate roots, Mackenzie went on to note that industrial relations in Australia posed nothing like the competitive risk that it did in some of BHP’s other global constituencies. Rather he suggested that our inability to put the relationship between capital and labour on a more productive footing was a competitive advantage surrendered.

How did the world’s miners not see it coming? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

It is an extraordinary fact that in just three years, 2011,
2012 and 2013, China used more cement than the United States
did in the 20th century, 6.6 billion tonnes compared with 4.4
billion, according to figures from the U.S. Geological Survey.

LONDON – “Why did nobody see it coming?” With this simple question, posed to Professor Luis Garicano of the London School of Economics in November 2008, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth famously summed up the layman’s astonishment that an obscure part of the derivatives universe could trigger a global financial crisis.

A similar question might be posed of the world’s miners right now. Having collectively bet the house on a commodities “supercycle” only to see the “super” part of that cycle dissolve in front of their eyes, they are now fighting the numerous fires engulfing their overstretched balance sheets.

Pardieu Brings Ruby Rush to Life with Stories, Updates from Madagascar – by Jaime Kautsky (Gemological Institute of America – March 10, 2016)

March 17, 2016

http://www.gia.edu/

A gem “fingerprint.” That’s what Vincent Pardieu, senior manager of field gemology for GIA in Bangkok, and his six-person team are looking for as they traverse the globe – and log hours in the lab – finding, analyzing and cataloging colored stones for GIA’s Colored Stone Identification and Origin Report reference collection.

So when Pardieu’s team learned of a newly discovered ruby deposit in northeast Madagascar in July 2015, they arranged a field expedition and set to work investigating and documenting the rubies of the island nation’s Zahamena National Park.

On Nov. 4, just a month after their trip, Pardieu and field assistant Manuel Diaz visited GIA’s Carlsbad campus to share their findings − and sometimes harrowing experiences − with students and staff.

Diamonds suffer from oversupply, price falls in new era – by James Wilson (Financial Times – March 16, 2016)

March 17, 2016

http://www.ft.com/

Only eight years ago, De Beers celebrated the opening of Snap Lake — a landmark project for the diamond producer. The diamond mine in Canada’s remote North West Territories was De Beers’ first outside its African heartland and the first completely underground diamond mine in the country. By the end of 2014, $2.2bn had been spent on development and operations.

Yet today, not a single diamond is being produced at Snap Lake, which has been closed with the loss of more than 400 jobs as De Beers responds to one of the worst market downturns in diamonds for years. This year, De Beers will consider whether the mine has a viable future. As recently as 2014 the mine was producing 1.2m carats of diamonds annually.

The temporary closure of the mine summed up the problems facing the diamond industry during 2015, when a downturn gathered pace and led to financial pain for miners, dealers and retailers.